Ukrainian Pavilion:
The Origami Deer by Zhanna Kadyrova on the Way to Venice

Tue 10.03.2026, from 10h

On 10 March 2026, the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna will host the public programme of the National Pavilion of Ukraine at the 61st International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia. The Origami Deer (2019), a sculpture by Zhanna Kadyrova, sits at the centre of the Security Guarantees exhibition, curated by Ksenia Malykh and Leonid Marushchak.
Zhanna created The Origami Deer as a permanent public artwork for a park in Pokrovsk, a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The sculpture originally stood on the site of a dismantled Soviet nuclear-capable jet. In August 2024, as the front line approached Pokrovsk and the civilian population began to evacuate, Zhanna, Leonid, and a team of municipal workers dismantled the sculpture and relocated it to a safer city. In 2025, The Origami Deer began its journey to Venice.
Both the Ukrainian Pavilion project and its public programme invite reflection on what were once termed “security assurances” under the Budapest Memorandum (1994), reconsidered in the light of current realities and emphasising their critical relevance for Ukraine and its people.

Event’s programme:

10–20h, MQ Haupthof: sculpture display 

12–13.30h, Raum D: press conference
with Zhanna Kadyrova and Leonid Marushchak and press screening of a film IDP (dir. Zhanna Kadyrova, 2025), Raum D.

18–19h, Raum D: screening of a documentary short film IDP
dir. Zhanna Kadyrova, 2025, further discussion with Zhanna Kadyrova and Leonid Marushchak

19–20h, Raum D: Conversation on the Weaponised Landscape and Its Inhabitants
Beginning with the history of Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament in the 1990s–early 2000s and the Budapest Memorandum (1994), which gave the project its title Security Guarantees, the discussion unfolds through Kadyrova’s work into a broader context. It focuses on non-human actors of war and displacement, deer as bio-monitors, weaponised ecology, and everything that moves within the wartime environment.
Moderator: Mariia Noschenko, curator and researcher.
Speakers: Asia Bazdyrieva, researcher and art historian; Fahim Amir, philosopher and cultural scientist.

20:30h: music performance at Roxy Club by Asia Bazdyrieva
 

The public programme is curated by Katia Khimei and Ivanna Kozachenko.

The project is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Сulture of Ukraine, UNESCO and Sushko Philanthropy. Media partners: Suspilne Kultura, Radio Kultura, Artslooker.

© Presentation of the sculpture in Lviv. 2025. Photo: Iryna Sereda.